On the breaking of a plasma wave in a thermal plasma. II. Electromagnetic wave interaction with the breaking plasma wave

In thermal plasma, the structure of the density singularity formed in a relativistically large amplitude plasma wave close to the wavebreaking limit leads to a refraction coefficient with discontinuous spatial derivatives. This results in a non-exponentially small above-barrier reflection of an electromagnetic wave interacting with the nonlinear plasma wave

Laser-driven acceleration of quasi-monoenergetic, near-collimated titanium ions via a transparency-enhanced acceleration scheme

Laser-driven ion acceleration has been an active research area in the past two decades with the prospects of designing novel and compact ion accelerators. Many potential applications in science and industry require high-quality, energetic ion beams with low divergence and narrow energy spread. Intense laser ion acceleration research strives to meet these challenges and may provide high charge state beams, with some successes for carbon and lighter ions. Here we demonstrate the generation of well collimated, quasi-monoenergetic titanium ions with energies ∼145 and 180 MeV in experiments using the high-contrast(<10-9) and high-intensity (6× 1020 W cm-2) Trident laser and ultra-Thin (∼100 nm) titanium foil targets. Numerical simulations show that the foils become transparent to the laser pulses, undergoing relativistically induced transparency (RIT), resulting in a two-stage acceleration process which lasts until ∼2 ps after the onset of RIT. Such long acceleration time in the self-generated electric fields in the expanding plasma enables the formation of the quasi-monoenergetic peaks. This work contributes to the better understanding of the acceleration of heavier ions in the RIT regime, towards the development of next generation laser-based ion accelerators for various applications

Laser-heated capillary discharge plasma waveguides for electron acceleration to 8 GeV

A plasma channel created by the combination of a capillary discharge and inverse Bremsstrahlung laser heating enabled the generation of electron bunches with energy up to 7.8 GeV in a laser-driven plasma accelerator. The capillary discharge created an initial plasma channel and was used to tune the plasma temperature, which optimized laser heating. Although optimized colder initial plasma temperatures reduced the ionization degree, subsequent ionization from the heater pulse created a fully ionized plasma on-axis. The heater pulse duration was chosen to be longer than the hydrodynamic timescale of ≈ 1 ns, such that later temporal slices were more efficiently guided by the channel created by the front of the pulse. Simulations are presented which show that this thermal self-guiding of the heater pulse enabled channel formation over 20 cm. The post-heated channel had lower on-axis density and increased focusing strength compared to relying on the discharge alone, which allowed for guiding of relativistically intense laser pulses with a peak power of 0.85 PW and wakefield acceleration over 15 diffraction lengths. Electrons were injected into the wake in multiple buckets and times, leading to several electron bunches with different peak energies. To create single electron bunches with low energy spread, experiments using localized ionization injection inside a capillary discharge waveguide were performed. A single injected bunch with energy 1.6 GeV, charge 38 pC, divergence 1 mrad, and relative energy spread below 2% full-width half-maximum was produced in a 3.3 cm-long capillary discharge waveguide. This development shows promise for mitigation of energy spread and future high efficiency staged acceleration experiments

Ultra-low emittance beam generation using two-color ionization injection in laser-plasma accelerators

Ultra-low emittance (tens of nm) beams can be generated in a plasma accelerator using ionization injection of electrons into a wakefield. An all-optical method of beam generation uses two laser pulses of different colors. A long-wavelength drive laser pulse (with a large ponderomotive force and small peak electric field) is used to excite a large wakefield without fully ionizing a gas, and a short-wavelength injection laser pulse (with a small ponderomotive force and large peak electric field), co-propagating and delayed with respect to the pump laser, to ionize a fraction of the remaining bound electrons at a trapped wake phase, generating an electron beam that is accelerated in the wake. The trapping condition, the ionized electron distribution, and the trapped bunch dynamics are discussed. Expressions for the beam transverse emittance, parallel and orthogonal to the ionization laser polarization, are derived. An example is presented using a 10-μm CO2 laser to drive the wake and a frequency-doubled Ti:Al2O3 laser for ionization injection

A Search for leptophilic Z_(l) boson at future linear colliders

We study the possible dynamics associated with leptonic charge in future linear colliders. Leptophilic massive vector boson, Z_(l), have been investigated through the process e^(+)e^(-) -> mu^(+)mu^(-). We have shown that ILC and CLIC will give opportunity to observe Z_(l) with masses up to the center of mass energy if the corresponding coupling constant g_(l) exceeds 10^(-3).Comment: 12 pages, 10 figure

Axion-like-particle search with high-intensity lasers

We study ALP-photon-conversion within strong inhomogeneous electromagnetic fields as provided by contemporary high-intensity laser systems. We observe that probe photons traversing the focal spot of a superposition of Gaussian beams of a single high-intensity laser at fundamental and frequency-doubled mode can experience a frequency shift due to their intermittent propagation as axion-like-particles. This process is strongly peaked for resonant masses on the order of the involved laser frequencies. Purely laser-based experiments in optical setups are sensitive to ALPs in the $\mathrm{eV}$ mass range and can thus complement ALP searches at dipole magnets.Comment: 25 pages, 2 figure

Expression of the BCR-ABL1 Gene in Patients with Chronic Myeloproliferative Diseases with Signs of Progression

Background. The V617F mutation of JAK2 is known to manifest in Ph-negative chronic myeloproliferative diseases (cMPD), such as polycythemia vera, thrombocythemia, and myelofibrosis. These diseases not infrequently advance into more aggressive forms up to acute leukemia. As the progression mechanism is still unknown, its study retains a high priority. JAK2 carrying the V617F mutation is believed to cause constant activation of V(D)J recombinase in myeloid tumor cells in cMPD patients. Aberrant activation of V(D)J recombinase in tumor cells in cMPD patients can lead to t(9;22)(q34;q11) chromosomal rearrangement. Aim. To study the expression of BCR-ABL1 resulting from translocation t(9;22)(q34;q11) in cMPD patients at the progression stage in order to test the suggested hypothesis. Materials & Methods. The BCR–ABL1 expression was assessed in peripheral blood granulocytes in cMPD patients by real-time PCR. The JAK2 V617F mutation was identified by quantitative allele-specific PCR. The JAK2 exon 12 mutations were determined using Sanger direct sequencing of PCR products. Results. The BCR-ABL1 expression was discovered in 29 % of patients with cMPD progression. The BCR-ABL1 expression in these patients correlated with hepatosplenomegaly and hyperleukocytosis. Conclusion. In a significant proportion of cMPD patients the disease progression can be associated with activation of the BCR-ABL expression